A Modest Economic Proposal

The subject in United States politics has changed from the War in Iraq to the economy. This is a subject which never fails to amuse me when politicians expound upon it because they mostly come from privileges background where they have not even had to balance their check books. Just a clue that they have no idea what it is like to be among the working class poor: They believe this group of people can save $15,000 to cover medical expenses.

The big wigs in Washington also think free trade helps us. And maybe it would if trade on all levels was in fact free. But it is not. China is allowed to ship us poisoned wheat glutton and defective tires freely but there are still tariffs and duties and taxes on goods going from the United States to foreign countries. Most notably from my stand point: Duties and taxes on art. Some so high that they exceed the cost of the art itself.

The Internet has made it possible for me with my small art business to reach clients all over the world through the Internet and websites. And yet it is extremely costly and difficult for me to sell that art to anyone outside the borders of the United States.

Last year the gallery that represents my work here in New Mexico wanted to establish an art exchange with a gallery in Mexico. Hands across the border. This is the country mind you that we are allowing to export millions of illegal aliens to our country and which there is a virtual free trade of guns and drugs. But to allow an artist from the United States to take works to Mexico to sell in a gallery there, and an artist from Mexico to come here with their works turned out to be virtually impossible even for a short month. Economically it became so extraordinary because of taxes and duties the two gallery owners gave up.

And recently an Internet friend from Australia wanted to buy one of my paintings. The shipping fees, taxes, and duties amounted to more than the cost of the painting. If we allow any product produced by our country to cross our borders freely and without price supports or penalties it should be the arts and crafts produced my one of the largest group of small businessmen and women in our country: Our artists and artisans.

We are probably the first people hurt by an economic slowdown. Art is not necessary for survival. But it is necessary for enrichment of the soul. And when artists and artisans do well they are one of the first groups of people to "give back" to their communities in the form of donated works of art for auctions to support charities, time given to schools to make up for the lack of art education in the schedules, loaned works of art to beautiful public buildings, etc.

Give us an economic boost by allowing us to sell freely around the world.

A Day at the Fair

This Art Sunday post is really about Friday and Saturday. Friday was setup for the Holiday Market Fair which opened today in Angel Fire. Normally we are all in a very holiday spirit for this event. It is not unlike a party we pay to participate in. And for most of us artists it is a chance to not only make money before the dismal months of January, February and March but a chance to do our own Christmas shopping from the other exhibitors.

This whole event this year got off on the wrong foot. First they changed the weekend. And the lied about why they changed it quoting a survey they had taken among last year's vendors and we can't find one that got that survey. Then the weather has been dismal. Not rain or snow but a chilling mix of both keeping crowds home in droves.

Then it was someone's great idea to make it more of a party and have entertainment. I am all for mixing arts but this is a small venue which means the three piece band is right in your lap. Makes it difficult to chat up the customers when you can't hear yourself think.

About four the level of rebellion was rising. One of the surveys we all remember filling in was that 5 should be the end of the day. Nobody comes out after dark in the winter. But that they chose to ignore and wanted us all to stay to 6. So from 4:30 to about 5:30 when we all walked out in mass all we talked about was the winter of our discontent.

I fully expect some vendors to not be there tomorrow. And everyone is saying they do not plan to do the fair next year unless they go back to the original weekend and our schedule preferences. Some change is good. But none of this was. I would feel sorry for the new director of this fair if she had not lied or it was not hurting me in the pocket book.

Artists are at the whim of gallery owners, fair producers and customers. It is why we like our own company.

Paul Klee for Art Sunday Inspiration

I had a college room mate that was a direct descendent of Paul Klee. We actually had a signed and numbered print of his in our dorm room. It was my first introduction to this whimsical Swiss born painter.

Cat and Bird


Klee was started out on the path to be a musician and began playing the violin at eight. At that time he was also given a box of chalk by his grandmother and encouraged to draw. I think there is something musical about his compositions, maybe because of this. Especially I can see the influence of the string instruments in his work.

Captive


Klee worked with many different types of media—oil paint, watercolor, ink, and more. He often combined them into one work becoming the father of mixed media. The above painting is done on fabric pasted to a board. He has been associated with expressionism, cubism and surrealism, but does not fit into one school of art.

His works, like the Cat and Bird one, often have a fragile child-like quality to them and are usually on a small scale. They frequently allude to poetry, music and dreams and can include words or musical notation. His later works, which are my personal favorites, are distinguished by spidery hieroglyph-like symbols which he famously described as "taking a line for a walk".

As illustrated in this work entitled Contemplating.



Or this work called The Twittering Machine.



Yellow Birds and is my favorite.



For more information on Paul Klee see Wiki.

Art Sunday - Edgar Degas

Edgar Degas is often identified as an Impressionist, which is an understandable but insufficient description. Impressionism originated in the 1860s and 1870s and grew from the realism of such painters as Courbet and Corot. The Impressionists painted the realities of the world around them using bright, "dazzling" colors, concentrating primarily on the effects of light, and hoping to infuse their scenes with immediacy. Degas differs in that he does not use, as art historian Frederick Hartt says, the Impressionist color fleck", and he continually belittled their practice of painting en plein air. Degas is described more accurately as an Impressionist than as a member of any other movement, however.

His scenes of Parisian life, his off-center compositions, his experiments with color and form, and his friendship with several key Impressionist artists, most notably Mary Cassatt and Edouard Manet, all relate him intimately to the Impressionist movement which defied the classical compositions and rules.

Degas defied the convention in the the painting above, The Ballet. To show he back of people's heads was previously unthinkable in art. Even in a more conventional subject like ballet dancers he takes the different view. The Ballet Class shows the backs of several dancers. And places the master of the dance as a diminutive figure off center.

He liked complex compositions of mundane subjects like the following painting of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange. And like the painting above he shows his mastery of perspective.



But one of my favorite paintings of his is the Absinthe Drinker. It was a stirring commentary of the times and the simplicity of the composition with the plain angles of the tables makes it all that much more stunning. Absinthe was a beverage with a narcotic effect and had much the same effect on French society that Meth has had on ours.

For more about the life of Edgar Degas see Wikipedia. And enjoy the Art Sunday tour.

For Y!360 participants see this tour link.